THE BIRDS OF ISRAEL. By Uzi Paz

1987. Hard cover with dust cover, 264 pages. Very good condition. Tightly bound, neat and clean. Gift inscription. Under 1kg.

This is a fabulous hardback book, including more than two dozen color plates of the birds of Israel. The volume includes more than 30 new species discovered since the last survey conducted in the region by Meinertzhagen for his 1954 volume, The Birds of Arabia. Many of the more than 470 species to be found in Israel range as far as the Caspian Sea, northern Russia and Siberia, and into Europe Eastern and Western Europe.

These birds reside throughout Israel, as well as the Judean Desert and Samaria and into the Straits of Tiran.

One especially gorgeous bird is the Smyrna Kingfisher, with a tiny white breast, and deep turquoise back and red head and shoulders. But there are also several lovely species of sandgrouse, including the Lichtenstein's, Crowned and Black-bellied, at least five species of terns, and many of seagulls.

The shorebirds, including plovers, and the collared pratincole, are also wondrous indeed.